Thoughts on 1 Peter 1:6

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  1 Peter 1:6

I volunteered to teach the High School and Middle School age class at church on Wednesday nights, as I mentioned in a previous post about teaching. We are studying 1 Peter and using materials published by the eBible Study website run by Oklahoma Christian University's College of Biblical Studies. The study guides and worksheets have been useful and taken a lot of pressure and time commitment off me in preparation every week. But I don't like the emphasis the preparer of the material, Dr. Curt Niccum, puts on the "benefits" of Christian suffering. I agree that the purpose of the author of 1 Peter (most likely the apostle Peter) is to encourage christians scattered to new areas in Asia, reminding them of the joy of their salvation, call them to live holy lives, and urge them not to lose their faith in the face of persecution. There doesn't seem to be an emphasis on rejoicing in suffering.


Take the above verse for example (1:6). The rejoice in this verse doesn't point to "rejoicing in your suffering" as is the stance Dr. Niccum takes and is the traditional interpretation, or at least the interpretation the at I've grown up hearing. Peter is telling the christians to rejoice in the salvation they have in Jesus Christ, reminding them of the hope and inheritance they have as gifts from God. In this phrase, Peter is saying to have joy in the blessings they have through Jesus, even in the midst of their trials, not because of those trials themselves.


The problem I see is christians in the present taking this passage as an excuse to act in a way that makes non-christians edgy, turning them off in a sense. This is justified because any negative reaction is "persecution" and our faith is just being "refined by fire, like gold." We run the risk of alienating people because of our self-righteousness: we are better than everyone else because we are christians. I don't feel like we are under the same persecution/trials that the early church was and to try and include ourselves in the same suffering, because we feel uncomfortable praying by ourselves at work or sharing our beliefs with a classmate or coworker who doesn't necessarily believe the same way we do, is ignorant. 


Again, the emphasis, both for followers of Christ in Peter's time and now, is to rejoice in the love, joy, peace, hope, and salvation we gain through a relationship with God. We should seek to share that joy with others, not turn them off to make us feel more assured about our place in heaven.